How to Paint a Landscape

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Landscapes don't move and they have natural lighting, so painting one is easy and fun for beginners.

To complete this How-To you will need:

A pre-stretched and gessoed canvas
An easel
Paints
A filbert brush
Water
A jar
Rags
A palette
A pencil
And a sketchpad
A pre-stretched and gessoed canvas
An easel
Paints
A filbert brush
Water
A jar
Rags
A palette
A pencil
And a sketchpad

Step 1: Choose your paint

Choose if you want to work in oil, acrylic or watercolor. Whatever you decide, choose the appropriate paints for your medium.

Step 2: Get a filbert brush

Leave all of your brushes at home except for a single filbert brush. As you progress in landscapes, add and experiment with other brushes.

Step 3: Bring water and rags

Bring lots of water and rags.

Step 4: Set up your easel

In the middle of the day, go set up your easel In a comfortable location that has a good view.

Tip: The light changes the least over a given number of hours in the middle of the day.

Step 5: Sketch your drawing

Using the pencil, sketch your painting on your sketch pad. Make only very rough shapes — triangles, arcs, blobs —to give it a general look and feel.

Tip: Painting is less about the medium (paint, pastel, pencil) and more about how you create the image. Drawings use lines. Paintings use shape.

Step 6: Work out values

When you're happy with the composition, it's time to work out the values, or lightness and darkness. On a scale of 1 to 10, choose a key object with a middle value.

Step 7: Eye the composition

Eye your composition, or structure. What's lighter than the object you chose? What's darker? What's in between and by how much?

Step 8: Choose values for all other objects

Using that value as your key, begin choosing values for all of the other objects in your composition.

Step 9: Color your key object

Once you're done, turn to the canvas and select a color for the key object.

Tip: You will probably need to mix paints to get the value you need.

Step 10: Paint the rough key object

Paint the rough shape of your key object.

Tip: Wash your brush thoroughly between colors in your jar of water. Dry on a rag.

Step 11: Paint another object

Choose an object touching your key object. Choose a color and assign it a middle value. Paint its rough shape. Stick to the middle values, avoiding highlights and shadows at this stage.

Step 12: Keep painting

Keep working around your composition until you've blocked off the whole piece.

Step 13: Appraise composition

Step back and look at your composition. Does it feel right?

Step 14: Assign and develop contrast

Now go back in to your piece and begin assigning and painting colors with more accurate values for ever-smaller shapes around the piece. Your contrast will begin to develop.

Tip: Start with lighter values, then move toward darker values.

Step 15: Add shadows

Add in your shadows in. Generally, you'll want a cooler color. Avoid pure black.

Step 16: Add highlights

Finally, add the highlights. These will be something in the family of the color of your light source, but avoid pure white.

Step 17: Sign and date the painting

When you're satisfied with your painting, sign the front, and, when it's dry, use a marker on the back to identify the title, place, and date.

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Category:

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[ravenance]

the light does and that's really important when painting landscapes...looking up claude monet's work might give you a better idea.

:P

[lildutchgrl13]

wowzers! thats real good!

[PrairieDon1021]

What is this a fucking segment from last week's sesame street? Why can I not find one goddamn video actually teaching me how to paint landscapes!? Has not one person has made a video actually teaching something? Like what the fuck was the point/demand for a video like this? This is the lesson they give: 1. Look at something. 2. Now recreate what youre looking at, using the chosen medium. 3. Hang on refrigerator. So fucking pointless

[Daigilia]

You will need:A printed landscape and pain.

Step 1:Paint the landscape.

Enjoy :D

[swizzle114]

um or take a picture and put on a grid and copy it to your sketch pad and then to your canvas it work good to

[MegaTrivial]

God, until now I thought landscapes always move... like water, winds, light.... What landscape is this about?

[BalooDumptruck]

@JTshootoff

look whose talking

[BalooDumptruck]

how abotu i take a shit on the landscape

[martelnews]

Bob Ross is the best landscape painter of my time...

[JamesBondsBackup]

i want to buy that pic

[ScilentCity]

no, really? I thought they jumped around and performed well choreographed numbers with the wood elves!

my God! Do they think we don't know these things?

[easysk8oven]

i can touch my nose =^d